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La maledizione dei Montrolfe
È con passo lento e strascicato che John Montrolfe sale i gradini di Cliff House, la grande casa sulla scogliera che da oggi sarà sua. Quella magione ormai in rovina non è, tuttavia, l’unica cosa che Montrolfe, ultimo rappresentante di una schiatta formidabile, ha ereditato: una terribile deformità fisica si tramanda come una maledizione nella sua famiglia. L’accoglienza a Cliff House è fredda, ma le notti di John sono rischiarate da un evento portentoso: l’apparizione di una fanciulla dalla pelle di seta bianca e gli occhi color genziana, che lo guarda come nessuna lo ha mai guardato prima. È il fantasma che, da quando esiste Cliff House, tormenta i Montrolfe, rendendoli pazzi d’amore. Fino a che, in una notte d’orrore, il sogno si fa incubo – il fantasma muore, il collo spezzato. Per John è l’inizio di un’affannosa ricerca della verità: chi era la ragazza del sogno, se mai è esistita? E quel quaderno ritrovato in uno scrittoio, che racconta la storia di Catherine Barton, a chi appartiene? Che fine terribile, povera Catherine! Nata con uno spirito ardente, una mente brillante e un cuore che non conosce paura, forse è stata vittima dell’incantesimo di Max Fabian, misterioso bandito dalla bellezza di angelo caduto. O forse la verità è nascosta ancora più a fondo, in un luogo oscuro dove le delicate fattezze della giovane paiono più le sembianze di una piccola Lady Macbeth… Dalla penna di un’autrice «sorprendente, molto in anticipo sui tempi» (Donna Tartt), "La maledizione dei Montrolfe" è una straordinaria riscoperta: favola nera e storia di fantasmi, romanzo d’avventura e folie à deux malefica e infinita. Un gioiello nella corona narrativa gotica, pronto a rubarvi il cuore.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1962
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About the author
Rohan O'Grady
5 books13 followersRohan O'Grady is the pseudonym for June Margaret O'Grady Skinner, who also wrote as A. Carleon.
O'Grady began writing poetry and stories as a young child and ventured into full-length fiction in her late thirties after her marriage to newspaper editor Frederick Skinner.
June Skinner has resided in West Vancouver since 1959.
O'Grady began writing poetry and stories as a young child and ventured into full-length fiction in her late thirties after her marriage to newspaper editor Frederick Skinner.
June Skinner has resided in West Vancouver since 1959.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
December 30, 2017
Poor John Montrolfe! Born with two club feet, a crooked neck that appears freshly gallows-hung, a monstrously towering stature, and a delicate appetite that only allows for water, gruel, and a dozen raw eggs for breakfast. Egads, what a life! This grumpy nuclear scientist inherits Montrolfe Hall and finds that the empty, cavernous interior and melancholy, haunted atmosphere mirrors his own state of being. 'Tis a good place for a moody fellow to get lost in. 'Tis even a better place for such a gentleman to find an enchanting little spirit, and then her hypnotically absorbing journal.
Poor little "Pippin"! Born with a mischievous spirit, a brilliant mind, a brave heart, a certain talent for lying, and an almost complete lack of conventional morality, this 15-year-old is whisked away from the seaside inn where she drudges away and into a dreadful gothic adventure. Her partners in crime: a stridently moral farmer, a beast in human form nicknamed The Dozer, and the cruel, charismatic, charmingly ardent nobleman called Max Fabian - who soon becomes the love of her short, tragic, but rather terribly exciting life. Together the four shall scour an abandoned tower for hidden treasure; they shall search until only half their number survives. And the gallows patiently waits for one of them...
Poor Pippin's Journal, or Rosemary is for Remembrance! Also known as The Curse of the Montrolfes, this compelling, often dryly humorous, and always hypnotically absorbing novel has a mere two reviews and is written by a shamefully under-appreciated author. The late June Margaret O'Grady Skinner wrote four novels under her pen name Rohan O'Grady and one under the pen name A. Carleon (which happens to be the name of that novel's protagonist). She had talent to burn - but a curious, perhaps off-putting sort of talent. Pointedly sardonic, surprisingly empathetic, elegantly written, and laced with throbbing veins of a very human sort of darkness, the novels I've read by her feature children and teens (and one lonely housewife) placed in deeply disturbing circumstances, yet whose eerie adventures are told with an often disarmingly light touch. And she has a, well, let's say different approach to happy endings. I loved this riveting novel as I've loved each of her other works. June Skinner was surely as idiosyncratic as any of her fascinating protagonists. Rest in peace, delightful author!
A marvelous bonus: the edition I read includes a dozen wonderful drawings by the inimitable Edward Gorey. Here are six of them:
April 23, 2018
This takes me back -- period adventure yarn with vintage Edward Gorey illustrations? Am I a fifth grader again? Not quite, Rohan O'Grady's repurposing of various pulp threads (here gothic macabre and 18th century crime and romance) dares you to think them frivolous. Ultimately, this is still mostly about the pleasure of a tale discovered, but O'Grady invests it with something more that's hard to pinpoint. Her touch is more overt in the completely singular Let's Kill Uncle, but helps explain the fascination here as well.
March 31, 2024
2.5, rounded up.
About two decades ago I became enamored and read most of the classics of Gothic literature (Walpole, Radcliffe, etc.). So that, along with the illustrations from Edward Gorey (one of my fave artists - I own about two dozen lithographs of his work!) impelled me to read this 'modern' Gothic from 1962. Alas, both proved to be a disappointment - the pictures are very early Gorey, before he quite developed his signature style; and the story itself was neither terribly clever nor entrancing - several times I almost DNF'd it. The structure is also rather odd, and difficult to follow in places - and one key plot point remains somewhat unresolved at the end. It read fairly quickly though, so there is that to recommend it.
About two decades ago I became enamored and read most of the classics of Gothic literature (Walpole, Radcliffe, etc.). So that, along with the illustrations from Edward Gorey (one of my fave artists - I own about two dozen lithographs of his work!) impelled me to read this 'modern' Gothic from 1962. Alas, both proved to be a disappointment - the pictures are very early Gorey, before he quite developed his signature style; and the story itself was neither terribly clever nor entrancing - several times I almost DNF'd it. The structure is also rather odd, and difficult to follow in places - and one key plot point remains somewhat unresolved at the end. It read fairly quickly though, so there is that to recommend it.
September 11, 2013
This is the second book I've read by Rohan O'Grady. The first, _Let's Kill Uncle_, was one of the oddest (in a good way) books I've ever read. This one, if not quite as bizarre, certainly pushes the boundaries of a conventional gothic. The novel opens with a story that seems pretty standard (emotionally isolated, Byronic hero moves to physically isolated, Byronic castle, complete with vaguely sinister but wacky nonagenarian caretaker and beautiful caretaker's niece). Then, about 50 pages in, that story is put aside for the bulk of the book, and replaced with one that takes place in the 17th Century. That story is violent, involves a 15 yr old girl's not-very-healthy relationship with a much older murderer, and has enough psycho-sexual tension amongst the three grown men and young girl to keep Freud happy for a lot of years. Again, toward the end, that story morphs into a third -- a trial transcript concerning the most minor of the four characters in the second story, and then the book concludes by bringing you back to the first set of characters. None of the stories has what I'd call a happy ending but you feel at the end that everyone pretty much gets what they deserved.
What impressed me the most about it all is the level of writing. It's definitely written in a gothic style, but there's something about O'Grady's writing that just draws you in, even into the most implausible of the plot lines. I don't think I've read a gothic suspense novel since I was thirteen and read _The Shuttered Room_ after seeing the movie (I was in love with the evil Oliver Reed character), but this really captured my attention. It looks like Ms O'Grady wrote a few more books that the library doesn't have; I'm on the hunt for them!
What impressed me the most about it all is the level of writing. It's definitely written in a gothic style, but there's something about O'Grady's writing that just draws you in, even into the most implausible of the plot lines. I don't think I've read a gothic suspense novel since I was thirteen and read _The Shuttered Room_ after seeing the movie (I was in love with the evil Oliver Reed character), but this really captured my attention. It looks like Ms O'Grady wrote a few more books that the library doesn't have; I'm on the hunt for them!
January 9, 2011
The Curse of the Montrolfes is an inventively structured gothic tale, a story-within-a-story, in which Rohan O’Grady exhibits a talent for fluid, convincing dialogue, strong character writing, and a well-paced narrative. The story’s surprises include a very unusual romance and a chameleon-like wretch comparable to the villains of Patricia Highsmith’s fiction. The first two-thirds of the book unfold in a fairly straight-forward manner, after which things become increasingly complex.
The book isn’t perfect (the ending is somewhat sudden and too-tidy), but I came away feeling that it would have been an almost-ideal read to have discovered in high school.
Star rating: 3.5 .
The book isn’t perfect (the ending is somewhat sudden and too-tidy), but I came away feeling that it would have been an almost-ideal read to have discovered in high school.
Star rating: 3.5 .
April 6, 2018
I so wanted Pippin to pick up & apply that pizzen! But alas, that would have been a different book.
November 7, 2025
ANTICO FASCINO
Niente da fare: i libri scritti tanti anni fa hanno un fascino tutto loro. Anche quelli che non sono noti classici della letteratura possiedono uno stile che li ricorda moltissimo, a partire da quel particolare andamento narrativo in cui lo scrittore sembra prendere per mano chi legge e accompagnarlo passo passo durante il racconto.
"La maledizione dei Montrolfe" mi ha colto di sorpresa inserendo nella narrazione principale, condotta dal protagonista John Montrolfe, il quaderno di Catherine Barton, che mi ha trasportata in ancora un'altra epoca. I personaggi, poi, mi sono piaciuti davvero tutti, incuriosendomi con la loro aura misteriosa e, sì, anche criminale.
Non riesco ad attribuirgli più di tre stelline, però. Troppi punti restano oscuri e il finale non mi ha soddisfatta del tutto.
Niente da fare: i libri scritti tanti anni fa hanno un fascino tutto loro. Anche quelli che non sono noti classici della letteratura possiedono uno stile che li ricorda moltissimo, a partire da quel particolare andamento narrativo in cui lo scrittore sembra prendere per mano chi legge e accompagnarlo passo passo durante il racconto.
"La maledizione dei Montrolfe" mi ha colto di sorpresa inserendo nella narrazione principale, condotta dal protagonista John Montrolfe, il quaderno di Catherine Barton, che mi ha trasportata in ancora un'altra epoca. I personaggi, poi, mi sono piaciuti davvero tutti, incuriosendomi con la loro aura misteriosa e, sì, anche criminale.
Non riesco ad attribuirgli più di tre stelline, però. Troppi punti restano oscuri e il finale non mi ha soddisfatta del tutto.
February 19, 2025
This was such a boring and depressing read. It was also super creepy, but not creepy in a spooky, gothic way. Creepy in a “revolves around a relationship between a 15 year old girl and a 33 year old man” kind of way. Edward Gorey’s black and white illustrations are wonderful so it gets an extra star for that. I do think that this story would appeal more to readers who loved Wuthering Heights, because it has a similar tone. But as someone who loves gothic books more along the lines of Jane Eyre, I really wish I hadn’t read this one.
November 12, 2025
Questo libro non è affatto una delle mille cose che mi aspettavo.
A mio parere, non fa bene niente, dove sono i fantasmi? E la maledizione? Boh.
Pagine e pagine di diario e dialoghi inutilmente lunghi.
Per chi dovrei fare il tifo? Per un uomo che si innamora di una 15enne?
Dialoghi assurdi. Niente azione, le poche cose interessanti vengono abbandonate.
Unico punto a favore è che è scorrevolissimo nonostante il suo inutile dilungarsi sul niente.
Questo libro voleva essere tante cose (gotico, misterioso, voleva essere, soprattutto, un Cime Tempestose, palesemente), ma non riesce ad essere nessuna di queste.
A mio parere, non fa bene niente, dove sono i fantasmi? E la maledizione? Boh.
Pagine e pagine di diario e dialoghi inutilmente lunghi.
Per chi dovrei fare il tifo? Per un uomo che si innamora di una 15enne?
Dialoghi assurdi. Niente azione, le poche cose interessanti vengono abbandonate.
Unico punto a favore è che è scorrevolissimo nonostante il suo inutile dilungarsi sul niente.
Questo libro voleva essere tante cose (gotico, misterioso, voleva essere, soprattutto, un Cime Tempestose, palesemente), ma non riesce ad essere nessuna di queste.
November 20, 2025
Ma che cagata ho appena letto?!
December 29, 2024
"A spellbinding Gothic page-turner," the folks at Valancourt Books tell us on the back cover of their new edition of Rohan O'Grady's novel entitled "Pippin's Journal," and happily, this blurb tells it just the way it is. The book was one that I had never even heard of up until a few months ago, and yet it has suddenly and surprisingly become one of my favorite reads of this year. Simply stated, I just loved this one!
"Pippin's Journal" was originally released as a Macmillan hardcover in 1962, with a cover and interior drawings by the famed illustrator Edward Gorey. That same year, British publisher Gollancz came out with its own hardback edition, also with the Gorey artwork. In 1964, Panther, another English publisher, released the novel in paperback form, while Ace, here in the U.S., came out with its own paperback incarnation, for some reason retitled as "The Master of Montrolfe Hall," and with an inappropriately misleading cover; one of the many Gothic covers that decade depicting a young woman fleeing from a sinister-looking abode...you've probably seen the type. The book would then go OOPS (out of prints) for 19 years, till Second Chance Press reissued its own hardcover edition in 1983, retitled again as "The Curse of the Montrolfes," and then OOPS again for 41 years, till Valancourt rescued it from oblivion in the spring of 2024. And what a truly inspired choice for a literary revival the book turns out to be! It is a novel that could easily be shoehorned into any one of several sections in your neighborhood bookstore, perhaps the reason for Gollancz putting these words on its 1962 edition: "A ghost-story? A fairy-tale? A novel of wild adventure? Call it what you will: You will anyhow 'gulp it down' at a sitting...."
Before getting into this novel's manifold fine qualities, a quick word on the author herself: Rohan O'Grady was born June Margaret O'Grady in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1922. She is perhaps best remembered today as the creator of five novels. Under her pen name Rohan O'Grady, she wrote "O'Houlihan's Jest" (1961), a story of Irish revolt during the 18th century; the book in question; "Let's Kill Uncle" (1963), her most well-known book, perhaps because it was filmed by the great William Castle in 1966; and "Bleak November" (1970), another Gothic horror affair. Under the pen name A. Carleon, she wrote "The May Spoon," a YA novel, in 1981. O'Grady passed away in 2014 at the ripe old age of 91.
The story of "Pippin" is given to the reader in four discrete sections here. In the first, as a framing device in the most Gothically inflected portion of the book, our narrator, John Montrolfe, arrives at his inheritance, Cliff House, in Dorset, fresh from Canada. Montrolfe is a 33-year-old nuclear physicist, of all things, with a twisted neck and two club feet. He is greeted (if that is the correct word) at the front door of the ancestral pile by Nanny Beckett, a 93-year-old, wizened crone who has done service in the house ever since she was 10! Montrolfe soon settles in nicely, but begins to have nightly dreams in which a beautiful young maiden beckons to him, and ultimately collapses into his arms with a broken neck. Montrolfe learns from Nanny Beckett that all the previous generations of Montrolfe men had suffered from a similar dream, beginning with the house's original builder, Sir Guy Montrolfe, in the middle of the 18th century. Reportedly, Sir Guy had gone somewhat mad, beseeching the heavens for his Pippin to return to him, before throwing himself off the nearby cliff. And the mystery of the beautiful young maiden is somewhat explained when John Montrolfe discovers Pippin's hidden diary in his bedside desk.
And so, in the book's second section, we are made privy to Pippin's journal; a segment that comprises over one-half of the book's length. Pippin, we learn, was actually one Catherine Barton, a 15-year-old bastard child who worked in her aunt's inn on the current site of Cliff House. One evening, in the late spring of 1758, when she'd been tending the inn alone, four thieves had arrived there by prearrangement, after having committed a daring robbery. There was Max Fabian, the handsome, 33-year-old, ruthlessly cunning mastermind of the gang; Edward Yorek, a decent and kindly farmer who'd only been led into a life of crime to help support his family; Jenkin Davy, "a big fair man"; and the brutish animal Thomas Parr, aka "the Dozer." Each of the four men was in possession of one piece of the getaway plan, and when the Dozer killed Davy, the others soon realized that the precise location of the hidden loot had been lost. But before he died, Davy had whispered the location of the cache to Catherine in the form of a two-part riddle. The trio of thieves burnt down the inn, with Davy's body along with it, kidnapped Catherine, and took off for the abandoned mill in which the stolen loot had been hidden by Davy...somewhere. As the weeks went by, Fabian began to realize that Catherine--who he had nicknamed Pippin, due to her apple-red cheeks--knew more than she had been letting on. He and the girl even began to fall in love with one another, despite the precarious circumstances. Pippin's diary ends happily soon after the loot is found and she and Fabian seem set to embark on a new life together. But in the novel's third section, taken from the diary of the Reverend Mr. Peterson, who Pippin had once suggested might have been her illegitimate father, we learn of the girl's earliest days, and then of the trial to determine who had murdered the unfortunate lass! And in the book's fourth section, we get to read the entire transcript of that September 1758 trial, during which Edward Yorek was tried for the murder of the poor girl, despite his desperate pleas of innocence. Taken together, the four sections reveal the reason why the succeeding generations of Montrolfe men have been haunted and cursed for over 200 years and counting....
To be perfectly honest, the wonderfully Gothic atmosphere engendered in the first section of O'Grady's novel (i.e., Montrolfe's arrival at Cliff House) is soon dissipated, as Nanny Beckett becomes less harsh and more comedic, as the mansion is cleaned up and modernized, and when Nanny's great-granddaughter Beatrice and her fiancé, a very normal couple, start to visit. Still, those early scenes will be a treat for all fans of Gothic fare, even in a modern setting. O'Grady also impresses us by incorporating four different writing styles in the book's four sections: a rational adult style in Montrolfe's narration, a simpler style in Catherine's journal, a guilt-ridden evangelical style in Reverend Peterson's diary, and finally, a completely convincing, court-clerk style for the judicial transcript. And she manages to ace all four of them. Of the four, Pippin's journal will probably be the favorite of most readers, but they are all exceptionally well done. The book presents us with any number of intriguing mysteries: What precisely is the origin of the Montrolfe curse? Why does the ghost of Pippin seemingly haunt all the men in that family? How exactly did Catherine meet her untimely end? What is the answer to that two-part riddle? Who was Pippin's father? How did the quartet of thieves first meet and then perpetrate their heist? Fortunately, the answers to all these questions are revealed by the book's final pages, and very ingeniously, too.
Now, as to that riddle itself, I must say that it perplexed me at first. But then, to my amazement, I awoke at around 4 AM the morning after starting the book, and in the first moment of consciousness, without even thinking about it, the answer was in my head! How bizarre! I was so excited at my solution to this mystery that I felt like jumping up and starting to read Pippin's journal some more. (Wisely, I turned over and went back to sleep!) Even Catherine, who is obviously a very intelligent teenager (as shown by her great pains in the making of ink and quills for her journal, in her manipulation of the three thieves, in her clandestine acquisition of poison), fails to see the significance of the riddle, although Fabian, when he finally hears it, figures it out with ease. As he truthfully tells Catherine, "It is not difficult." Still, difficult or not, I was very impressed that my unconscious brain somehow supplied me with the answer!
In a book that is so relentlessly gripping all the way through, several sequences manage to stand out: Nanny Beckett's recitation of the accursed Montrolfe family history; the Dozer's attempt to torture Pippin; Fabian's attempt to kill the Dozer using a heavy wooden beam; the killing of the Dozer by Fabian and Pippin; and the revelation of the two-part riddle and subsequent discovery of the cache. The killing of the Dozer is an especially harrowing sequence, and I don't think I'll be spoiling much of the fun by revealing that it ultimately requires a heavy dose of poison, seven stabbings, and a white-hot poker to the neck to bring the monstrous brute down!
For the rest of it, O'Grady's book is a nonstop delight to read, with numerous instances of authentic-sounding 18th century dialogue ("Keep your hands off me, you whoreson, or I'll tickle your slats with my knife," Fabian at one point tells the Dozer) and finely expressed ideas (as Pippin says of herself and Max, "...we had both grown like the trees of my own wild coast, twisted by the wind into strange shapes never intended by nature."). And if the central romance of a 33-year-old man with a 15-year-old woman strikes the modern-day reader as a tad, well, icky, please know that yes, it is indeed, but that it remains a fascinating one, nevertheless. Ultimately, "Pippin's Journal" tells a very sad, even tragic story--even John Montrolfe is reduced to tears after reading Peterson's diary and the trial transcript--but one that still ends well for our narrator, the deformed and twisted scientist who brings the 200-year-old "cold case" to light. To be clear, the book is absolutely unputdownable, and the Pittsburgh Press was quite correct in its assertion that this is "A story that should be read at a sitting, preferably when the wind whistles like a demon around the house and curtains are drawn against rain-splashed windows." I cannot imagine any fan of supernatural, thriller, historical, mystery or Gothic fare not loving it.
I have practically no complaints to levy against Rohan O'Grady's remarkable work here. Oh, the Gothic element might have been sustained a bit longer, but that would have resulted in a different book. And in that court transcript, it is mentioned that Yorek attempted to sell the thieves' stolen horses on June 13th; a little later, we are told that it was on the 12th. But other than this one inconsistency, this is a virtually flawless exercise, and a hugely entertaining one, as well. It is a book that will surely make any reader want to experience more of the author's work, and happily, Valancourt has just announced the imminent publication of Rohan O'Grady's other Gothic novel, "Bleak November." It is a book that I look forward to purchasing very soon....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of supernatural fare....)
"Pippin's Journal" was originally released as a Macmillan hardcover in 1962, with a cover and interior drawings by the famed illustrator Edward Gorey. That same year, British publisher Gollancz came out with its own hardback edition, also with the Gorey artwork. In 1964, Panther, another English publisher, released the novel in paperback form, while Ace, here in the U.S., came out with its own paperback incarnation, for some reason retitled as "The Master of Montrolfe Hall," and with an inappropriately misleading cover; one of the many Gothic covers that decade depicting a young woman fleeing from a sinister-looking abode...you've probably seen the type. The book would then go OOPS (out of prints) for 19 years, till Second Chance Press reissued its own hardcover edition in 1983, retitled again as "The Curse of the Montrolfes," and then OOPS again for 41 years, till Valancourt rescued it from oblivion in the spring of 2024. And what a truly inspired choice for a literary revival the book turns out to be! It is a novel that could easily be shoehorned into any one of several sections in your neighborhood bookstore, perhaps the reason for Gollancz putting these words on its 1962 edition: "A ghost-story? A fairy-tale? A novel of wild adventure? Call it what you will: You will anyhow 'gulp it down' at a sitting...."
Before getting into this novel's manifold fine qualities, a quick word on the author herself: Rohan O'Grady was born June Margaret O'Grady in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1922. She is perhaps best remembered today as the creator of five novels. Under her pen name Rohan O'Grady, she wrote "O'Houlihan's Jest" (1961), a story of Irish revolt during the 18th century; the book in question; "Let's Kill Uncle" (1963), her most well-known book, perhaps because it was filmed by the great William Castle in 1966; and "Bleak November" (1970), another Gothic horror affair. Under the pen name A. Carleon, she wrote "The May Spoon," a YA novel, in 1981. O'Grady passed away in 2014 at the ripe old age of 91.
The story of "Pippin" is given to the reader in four discrete sections here. In the first, as a framing device in the most Gothically inflected portion of the book, our narrator, John Montrolfe, arrives at his inheritance, Cliff House, in Dorset, fresh from Canada. Montrolfe is a 33-year-old nuclear physicist, of all things, with a twisted neck and two club feet. He is greeted (if that is the correct word) at the front door of the ancestral pile by Nanny Beckett, a 93-year-old, wizened crone who has done service in the house ever since she was 10! Montrolfe soon settles in nicely, but begins to have nightly dreams in which a beautiful young maiden beckons to him, and ultimately collapses into his arms with a broken neck. Montrolfe learns from Nanny Beckett that all the previous generations of Montrolfe men had suffered from a similar dream, beginning with the house's original builder, Sir Guy Montrolfe, in the middle of the 18th century. Reportedly, Sir Guy had gone somewhat mad, beseeching the heavens for his Pippin to return to him, before throwing himself off the nearby cliff. And the mystery of the beautiful young maiden is somewhat explained when John Montrolfe discovers Pippin's hidden diary in his bedside desk.
And so, in the book's second section, we are made privy to Pippin's journal; a segment that comprises over one-half of the book's length. Pippin, we learn, was actually one Catherine Barton, a 15-year-old bastard child who worked in her aunt's inn on the current site of Cliff House. One evening, in the late spring of 1758, when she'd been tending the inn alone, four thieves had arrived there by prearrangement, after having committed a daring robbery. There was Max Fabian, the handsome, 33-year-old, ruthlessly cunning mastermind of the gang; Edward Yorek, a decent and kindly farmer who'd only been led into a life of crime to help support his family; Jenkin Davy, "a big fair man"; and the brutish animal Thomas Parr, aka "the Dozer." Each of the four men was in possession of one piece of the getaway plan, and when the Dozer killed Davy, the others soon realized that the precise location of the hidden loot had been lost. But before he died, Davy had whispered the location of the cache to Catherine in the form of a two-part riddle. The trio of thieves burnt down the inn, with Davy's body along with it, kidnapped Catherine, and took off for the abandoned mill in which the stolen loot had been hidden by Davy...somewhere. As the weeks went by, Fabian began to realize that Catherine--who he had nicknamed Pippin, due to her apple-red cheeks--knew more than she had been letting on. He and the girl even began to fall in love with one another, despite the precarious circumstances. Pippin's diary ends happily soon after the loot is found and she and Fabian seem set to embark on a new life together. But in the novel's third section, taken from the diary of the Reverend Mr. Peterson, who Pippin had once suggested might have been her illegitimate father, we learn of the girl's earliest days, and then of the trial to determine who had murdered the unfortunate lass! And in the book's fourth section, we get to read the entire transcript of that September 1758 trial, during which Edward Yorek was tried for the murder of the poor girl, despite his desperate pleas of innocence. Taken together, the four sections reveal the reason why the succeeding generations of Montrolfe men have been haunted and cursed for over 200 years and counting....
To be perfectly honest, the wonderfully Gothic atmosphere engendered in the first section of O'Grady's novel (i.e., Montrolfe's arrival at Cliff House) is soon dissipated, as Nanny Beckett becomes less harsh and more comedic, as the mansion is cleaned up and modernized, and when Nanny's great-granddaughter Beatrice and her fiancé, a very normal couple, start to visit. Still, those early scenes will be a treat for all fans of Gothic fare, even in a modern setting. O'Grady also impresses us by incorporating four different writing styles in the book's four sections: a rational adult style in Montrolfe's narration, a simpler style in Catherine's journal, a guilt-ridden evangelical style in Reverend Peterson's diary, and finally, a completely convincing, court-clerk style for the judicial transcript. And she manages to ace all four of them. Of the four, Pippin's journal will probably be the favorite of most readers, but they are all exceptionally well done. The book presents us with any number of intriguing mysteries: What precisely is the origin of the Montrolfe curse? Why does the ghost of Pippin seemingly haunt all the men in that family? How exactly did Catherine meet her untimely end? What is the answer to that two-part riddle? Who was Pippin's father? How did the quartet of thieves first meet and then perpetrate their heist? Fortunately, the answers to all these questions are revealed by the book's final pages, and very ingeniously, too.
Now, as to that riddle itself, I must say that it perplexed me at first. But then, to my amazement, I awoke at around 4 AM the morning after starting the book, and in the first moment of consciousness, without even thinking about it, the answer was in my head! How bizarre! I was so excited at my solution to this mystery that I felt like jumping up and starting to read Pippin's journal some more. (Wisely, I turned over and went back to sleep!) Even Catherine, who is obviously a very intelligent teenager (as shown by her great pains in the making of ink and quills for her journal, in her manipulation of the three thieves, in her clandestine acquisition of poison), fails to see the significance of the riddle, although Fabian, when he finally hears it, figures it out with ease. As he truthfully tells Catherine, "It is not difficult." Still, difficult or not, I was very impressed that my unconscious brain somehow supplied me with the answer!
In a book that is so relentlessly gripping all the way through, several sequences manage to stand out: Nanny Beckett's recitation of the accursed Montrolfe family history; the Dozer's attempt to torture Pippin; Fabian's attempt to kill the Dozer using a heavy wooden beam; the killing of the Dozer by Fabian and Pippin; and the revelation of the two-part riddle and subsequent discovery of the cache. The killing of the Dozer is an especially harrowing sequence, and I don't think I'll be spoiling much of the fun by revealing that it ultimately requires a heavy dose of poison, seven stabbings, and a white-hot poker to the neck to bring the monstrous brute down!
For the rest of it, O'Grady's book is a nonstop delight to read, with numerous instances of authentic-sounding 18th century dialogue ("Keep your hands off me, you whoreson, or I'll tickle your slats with my knife," Fabian at one point tells the Dozer) and finely expressed ideas (as Pippin says of herself and Max, "...we had both grown like the trees of my own wild coast, twisted by the wind into strange shapes never intended by nature."). And if the central romance of a 33-year-old man with a 15-year-old woman strikes the modern-day reader as a tad, well, icky, please know that yes, it is indeed, but that it remains a fascinating one, nevertheless. Ultimately, "Pippin's Journal" tells a very sad, even tragic story--even John Montrolfe is reduced to tears after reading Peterson's diary and the trial transcript--but one that still ends well for our narrator, the deformed and twisted scientist who brings the 200-year-old "cold case" to light. To be clear, the book is absolutely unputdownable, and the Pittsburgh Press was quite correct in its assertion that this is "A story that should be read at a sitting, preferably when the wind whistles like a demon around the house and curtains are drawn against rain-splashed windows." I cannot imagine any fan of supernatural, thriller, historical, mystery or Gothic fare not loving it.
I have practically no complaints to levy against Rohan O'Grady's remarkable work here. Oh, the Gothic element might have been sustained a bit longer, but that would have resulted in a different book. And in that court transcript, it is mentioned that Yorek attempted to sell the thieves' stolen horses on June 13th; a little later, we are told that it was on the 12th. But other than this one inconsistency, this is a virtually flawless exercise, and a hugely entertaining one, as well. It is a book that will surely make any reader want to experience more of the author's work, and happily, Valancourt has just announced the imminent publication of Rohan O'Grady's other Gothic novel, "Bleak November." It is a book that I look forward to purchasing very soon....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of supernatural fare....)
December 26, 2025
DNF@PG.140
A me dispiace concludere l'anno con una lettura interrotta, ma proprio non riesco a continuare questo libro. Se c'è un TW che proprio non sopporto, insieme alla crudeltà verso gli animali, è quello delle relazioni tra persone adulte e minorenni. Il libro già inizia con il "protagonista" che si invaghisce e viene ammaliato nel sogno da Catherine, lui che è un uomo adulto e lei lo spirito di una quindicenne e ancora ancora sono riuscita ad accettarlo vista la maledizione che anticipa il libro; il problema grosso però è arrivato quando il suddetto trova il diario di Catherine, e di come questa racconta del suo amore assolutamente tossico e perverso con un uomo di 30 anni quando lei ne ha solo 13. Non so voi, ma per me è NO, NOPE, NONONONO! Se avessi voluto leggere una storia del genere avrei letto Lolita, e non ho mai avuto intenzione di leggerlo, Lolita!
Quindi sì, senza rimpianti la finisco qua e abbandono allegramente la nave. Addiosssss!
A me dispiace concludere l'anno con una lettura interrotta, ma proprio non riesco a continuare questo libro. Se c'è un TW che proprio non sopporto, insieme alla crudeltà verso gli animali, è quello delle relazioni tra persone adulte e minorenni. Il libro già inizia con il "protagonista" che si invaghisce e viene ammaliato nel sogno da Catherine, lui che è un uomo adulto e lei lo spirito di una quindicenne e ancora ancora sono riuscita ad accettarlo vista la maledizione che anticipa il libro; il problema grosso però è arrivato quando il suddetto trova il diario di Catherine, e di come questa racconta del suo amore assolutamente tossico e perverso con un uomo di 30 anni quando lei ne ha solo 13. Non so voi, ma per me è NO, NOPE, NONONONO! Se avessi voluto leggere una storia del genere avrei letto Lolita, e non ho mai avuto intenzione di leggerlo, Lolita!
Quindi sì, senza rimpianti la finisco qua e abbandono allegramente la nave. Addiosssss!
December 28, 2025
Nonostante si sia rivelata una storia completamente diversa da quello che mi aspettavo dalla trama, ho divorato questo libro. Mi è piaciuta tantissimo la parte del diario, ho trovato i personaggi fantastici e la storia originale. Purtroppo mi ha deluso un po' il finale, è stato frettoloso e mi ha lasciato troppe domande senza risposta.
December 4, 2025
Le premesse erano ottime, purtroppo il risultato é stato deludente. La parte centrale del racconto risulta noiosa, i personaggi piuttosto banali, pensare che sono quelli che influenzano secoli di storia. La scrittura e le ambientazioni sono molto belle.
November 27, 2025
aveva un buon potenziale ma non mi ha catturata... una magione, dei misteri...ma tutto trattato in modo confusionario a mio parere...
December 18, 2025
Un vero e proprio romanzo-matrioska: una storia dentro la storia.
Atmosfere cupe e cariche di mistero attraversano pagine dense di dialoghi e voci narrative: il racconto in prima persona, il diario segreto di Catherine Barton, le parole del reverendo Peterson e la trascrizione processuale si alternano, creando un coro inquieto e magnetico che trascina il lettore sempre più a fondo nell’oscurità.
L’unico elemento che mi ha lasciato leggermente perplessa è il finale forse troppo rapido, quasi affrettato.
Atmosfere cupe e cariche di mistero attraversano pagine dense di dialoghi e voci narrative: il racconto in prima persona, il diario segreto di Catherine Barton, le parole del reverendo Peterson e la trascrizione processuale si alternano, creando un coro inquieto e magnetico che trascina il lettore sempre più a fondo nell’oscurità.
L’unico elemento che mi ha lasciato leggermente perplessa è il finale forse troppo rapido, quasi affrettato.
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